George Aar

Ah yes, the infamous "Yakko Edobei" The artist of that print is the inscrutable "Sharaku", an Edo-era print designer who showed up in 1794, made prints for about 8 months or so, and promptly dropped out of sight. Nobody can quite figure out who he was, where he came from, or whatever became of him. There's numerous theories, but nobody really knows for sure. His prints were not really appreciated at the time, but about a century later western scholars discovered him and his fame finally spread. He was sort of an overnight success, but about a century after he'd died. Anyway, this particular print is of the kabuki character "Yakko Edobei". A "Yakko" is a footman. A servant of a lord, but in this case it has a somewhat darker connotation. More like a mob boss' underling who "took care" of things for his boss. Here Yakko is plotting to steal money from the faithful servant Ippei. The crossed eyes and odd posture and gesture indicate that this is a "mie" (display), a highpoint of the Kabuki where the actor has a particularly emotionally intense moment...

No, it doesn't say on the label. I hunted and hunted and finally found "Arm and Hammer" and there, in the lower, LH corner of the label it said in miniscule print (I had to put on my glasses) "laundry detergent". There! Was that so hard? Would it be all that much to ask to actually label it so it could be read without a magnifying glass? If it was just one maufacturer I would write it off as an oversight on their part. But it really was virtually every brand. It just struck me as odd that nobody trys very hard to identify their product as what it is. They just assume we'll know?

Being more or less in bachelor mode again, I'm finding out things about domestic life I had never considered before. Maybe some of you folks more aquainted with the minutiae of daily life can enlighten me. Why do the laundry soap manufaturers try so hard to keep their product a secret? I mean, just the other day while attempting to buy some laundry detergent I couldn't figure out what the heck bottle or box of stuff to buy. I was trying to be sure I wasn't buying fabric softener or some other non-detergent laundry product, but NOWHERE on the label of the suspected soaps could I find a hint of what was actually inside. Lots of bright and cheery names for the product (BREEZY, TIDE, GAIN! and the like) but not a hint of what was actually inside the container. Is there some sort of negative connotation to "laundry detergent" that I'm unaware of? Why do they not label their product with some sort of jargon to explain just what it is they're selling? O.K., so this isn't earth-shattering, but it annoyed me enought to wanta ask...

A waitaminute, that can't be right, I actually remember the theme for the Patty Duke Show - "But they're cousins, Identical cousins and you'll find they walk alike they talk alike you can lose your mind when cousins are two of a ki-innnd!" Acck! That was really awful, wasn't it? Jeezus, did anybody ever suggest euthanasia for the gimps that compose that sort of crap? The world would be a better place...

Yeah, in WayWorld it was always so easy to ridicule other's superstitions, but to get real sanctimonious about our own. What a small world we lived in...

Cool, thanks Mark, I feel like my old self again...

Well, it's light and fluffy, so I'm pretty sure it's gotta be a sitcom of some sort, probably with a young girl as the lead character? "The Patty Duke Show" maybe? Just a wild guess...

Oh strange one, my avatar went missing when I first came to the new GS Cafe (a couple of years ago now?) I never quite got around to putting one up again. If anybody can tell me where to get a pic of Yakko Edobei (by Sharaku) and tell me the steps, I'll be glad to have my alter ego in place again.

Anybody remember the LOWEST number they ever saw on a McDonald's sign? IIRC, I saw a McDonald's in south Seattle with a "over 900 million sold" slogan on it's sign. I think that was about 1962 or so. Also, IIRC, hamburgers were 15 cents at McD's then. And, yeah, the Big Mac didn't come out till lots later. And they also only employed boys to work there. When did that end, anyhow?

P&S, Well, it's been awhile since I've really unloaded, so what the hell. WayWorld was a devious, self-important, contrived, MLM with a religious veneer. It's sole purpose was the betterment, enrichment, and entertainment of it's founder, the Vicster. Should anything worthwhile have happened to anyone else who got involved, I believe it was sheer coincidence, certainly not by design. It was a group-think, pre-chewed philosophy cult where subjection was lauded and independance was eschewed. REAL thought was to be avoided at all costs. If you were an independant thinker and somehow came to the same conclusions as VPW, well, you'd be tolerated. IF, however, your thoughts strayed from the accepted dogma, you were quickly stifled and/or shown the door. "Freedom in Christ"? Puhleeze! Life in WayWorld was a self-imposed straight jacket. Yes, we made friends, had some good experiences, even had the occasional epiphany and got along well, as long as we learned to parrot the catch phrases we were taught. Dissent was NEVER allowed. Either toe the line or hit the road. So what did we get out of all that? Personally, not much. I invested (not too wisely) about 15 years of my life, and who knows how many thousands of dollars and got basically nothing in return. Yeah, I'm still a little miffed about that, but I do accept that I went along with it of my own free will. Still, getting fleeced doesn't tend to fill me with gratitude. The LAW OF BELIEVING, the LAW OF GIVING AND RECEIVING, the MANIFESTATIONS OF THE SPIRIT, and SPEAKING IN TONGUES, and various other tripe we were "taught" was a weird mixing of pop-psychology, fringe Christian dogma and basic conman techniques that have been used for eons. They WORK?(!) That would be news to me. Well, I mean for something other than lining the MOG's pockets. The Way International, IMHO, was a vile, digusting, self-serving, inbred, hurtful CULT of personality that disrupted people's lives, hurt them, used them, and ultimately gave them nothing but Amway-esque slogans to sooth their troubled minds with. It was a very unfair trade. A narcissistic leader who cared nothihg for his followers other than what he could take from them, and an "us and them" mindset that divided us from the world and kept us retarded in what we could (and should) have been accomplishing. Rather than going to college, trade-school, or advancing in our careers, we went "W.O.W." or "Corps", or into the "University of Life" where we earned (gasp!) nametags, medals, and worthless diplomas and ended up with a head full of Byzantine Mysticism but damned little else. So, can I give you some quick "one-liners" (gawd, could it get anymore Wayferish?) about how cool WayWorld was?..... no...

I gotta wonder if Shermer isn't BSing us. I mean, I took the test and got a "you're a really cool, unprejudiced, new-age sorta guy" response. To which I can only add "Oh Yeah?" To me it seems like it measures hand-eye coordination much better than anything else. But, whaddu I know?

sprawled out, email me, or maybe send me a PM. If you're interested, I think I can balance out your view of things a bit...

I celebrated Christmas (uh, that's Karisumasu) in Japan one year. Seemed just about the same as here -crassly commercial, overindulgent, and basically meaningless. There's an urban legend that in the '50s there was a Karisumasu display in one of the major Tokyo department store windows that showed a smiling Santa Claus nailed to a cross. I think that embodies just about everything the holiday stands for. A phony feel-good charitable attitude, borrowed symbology - the true meanings of which are never questioned and long since lost to history, and a mindless quest to buy, buy, buy. Why couldn't we just go back to the good 'ol days and have a few bonfires, gorge ourselves on pig's head, and maybe sacrifice a few virgins? Geeze, nobody's got any respect for tradition anymore...

Sad to say, but I think a large part of the equation is simply human nature. Like any of the other pack animals, we tend to have followers and leaders. And leaders don't necessarily need to pass any sort of competency or morality test either. They simply need to be assertive and charismatic and maybe a little authoritarian and the rest of us will fall in line behind them. I wish I hadn't. Sadder but wiser now...

Yeah, I talked to Karl a year or so after his book came out, and he wasn't exactly overwhelmed with the money he'd made off of it. Fortunately, he didn't quit his day job...

The only book I know if that fits yours description is Karl Kahler's book "The Cult that Snapped". There's links to it on this site, IIRC. Otherwise a quick google search will turn it up.

Huh?

We already had it earlier this week, and - may I say - you're all welcome to it. We broke the alltime rain record for a single month (they started recording such things here in 1891) and a cold record for November to boot. First it was floods, then it was snow. I've had enough winter already, thank you very much...

Let's put the Saturn back in Saturnalia!

How could have been anything else? Geeze Pete, we were promoting patent nonsense for the sole purpose of promoting an MLM organization, for IT'S future growth and financial enrichment. The pseudo-Godly veneer was simply cover. Lordy, but we were gullible S.O.B.s...

I always wondered about the "member" thingy. I mean, what difference did it make? Was there some kind of tax advantage to not having "members" or something? The semantic juggling ALWAYS stuck in my craw at WayWorld. It was so indicative of their inherent dishonesty, intellectually, financially, and morally. Why did it take so long for me to connect the dots? Shame on me...

I worked on "black Friday" - as usual. I have to reiterate what Hap and some others have said. Christmas is a vile, digusting, contrived, stress-inducing atrocity. I don't want to play anymore. We've already raised rampant, unbridled, mindless consumerism to an art form, why not crank it up a few notches every year? sigh.... Last year was kinda the straw that broke the back for me. Wife was gone, daughter was away, and boychild couldn't have cared less about anything I tried to do. Then the only gift I got was a gift certificate for $50. from my mother - the same thing I had just given her, even from the same department store! So just what IS the point anyway? The holidaze have turned into a months-long gauntlet to run. All sorts of things you "Have" to buy, places you have to be, parties with people you barely know, decorations you're supposed to put up, and all the while somewhere "The Little Drummer Boy" is playing softly in the background. And you look around the room and all you see is desperation in the eyes of everyone. They're all stressed to the max as well, and I'll bet, secretly wishing they could just go home and put their feet up. But, there we are, smiling and drinking some sickeningly-sweet concoction of milk, eggs and booze and wishing each other a Merry Christmas ("No Bull$#it, I really mean it, man!"). I think maybe I'll just stay drunk for the next few weeks and skip the formalities...

Legal ramifications notwithstanding, after seeing the video of Richard's outburst, I have to reiterate what someone else concluded: the guy is bat$#it crazy. Nobody in their right mind - no matter how much of a racist or bigot he may be - would destroy their career over a few hecklers. The boy needs a rubber room for awhile. And, that being said, I have to add that, although I enjoyed much of the Seinfeld show, the dark humor often gave me the creeps. And sometimes it went beyond "dark" and got just icky...

The first thing they did was call 911?(!) Well, isn't it obvious why they had an opportunity? They shoulda rebuked that soot spirit right then and there. Geeze, I'm soooo disappointed in these guys...

Maybe I'm not "touchy-feely" enough, but I think you did fine Nato. Regardless what you say to those kids, it won't make any difference. They've got to get to the place where they've had enough of the $%^t themselves before the brain will start operating again. I know all the similar stuff I posted long ago on WayDale did me a world of good. It was great therapy, really. I'm glad you had the chance to get a little of that off your chest. geo.